Discovery reaches 18 million total paid streaming subscribers

Just seven months after the debut of its SVOD platform Discovery+, Discovery Inc. has reached 18 million total paid streaming subscribers, the company revealed in its second quarter earnings report on Tuesday. Although the majority comes from the new OTT service, this number encompasses Discovery’s entire portfolio, including international direct-to-consumer products such as Eurosport Player and GolfTV.

“We continued to steadily execute in our emerging next generation businesses, with 17 million paying direct-to-consumer subscribers at the end of the quarter, and 18 million as of today,”  confirmed David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery Inc., in a statement.

In the first quarter of the year, Discovery reported that it had ended the period with “13 million global next generation-paying, direct-to-consumer subscribers” and had reached a cross-portfolio total of 15 million as of April 28. The Q2 2021 one was the company’s third earnings report since the Discovery+ launch early in the year.

The company also disclosed improved advertising revenue, including a second-quarter gain of 12% in the United States and an 88% jump in its international business, or 70% excluding foreign-exchange impacts. According to Zaslav, the ad-gain in the United States was “primarily due to higher pricing, the continued monetization of content offerings on next-generation platforms, and higher inventory, partially offset by lower ratings and, to a lesser extent, secular declines in the pay-TV ecosystem”.

Also in Tuesday’s earnings update, Zaslav commented on the Tokyo Olympics, to which Discovery has the rights in Europe. “Our first Summer Olympic Games have thus far been a success, supporting healthy viewing and subscriptions across both our linear and streaming platforms, and underscores the importance of our commitment and investment in marquee IP,”  he assured.